Operations at Y-12 Nuclear Detection and Sensor Testing Center

The Y-12 Nuclear Detection and Sensor Testing Center (NDSTC) began operations in late 2010. NDSTC is a Service Center commissioned to enhance accessibility and reduce costs for researchers to deploy and test their instrumentation with Enriched and Highly Enriched Uranium (EU - HEU). Ionizing and non-ionizing radiation detectors and other systems may be deployed. Multiple testing sites are available, including facilities and outdoor areas that can be configured as a testing area under the NDSTC umbrella of Operational Safety Basis, Readiness Assessments, and facility approvals. Two dedicated detector testing sites are operational. Both already have been utilized by user groups. „Site 1? is located within a highly protected facility that houses HEU components, assemblies, specific objects, etc. Passive and active interrogations of objects are authorized. An area within Site 1 may be used for active interrogation of components and assemblies using pulsed and steady-state D-T and D-D neutron generators and 252Cf sources. Additional sources for active interrogation measurements are being considered. A second set of testing sites is available to personnel with and without security clearances (university researchers, nuclear instrumentation companies, etc.). „Site 2? is discussed in more detail in an associated presentation (Cantrell, et al. 2011). Examples of source materials available at Site 2 include the new EU – HEU standards, Radiological Signature Training Devices that replicate gamma-ray signatures of large quantities of HEU, and other Category III, unclassified HEU metal components, U chemical compounds, and objects. Experiment Requests are being accepted. Requests should describe testing scenarios with the types and quantities of materials and specific source components to be interrogated, calibration sources, shielding and moderator requirements / configurations, support instrumentation and electronics, data storage and retrieval systems, and associated equipment. Input is sought from funding agencies and potential users in order to develop comprehensive listings of detector components and instrumentation systems that may be planned for deployment and testing at Y-12.